Community to reopen pub which faced last orders

Residents of a North Yorkshire village who saved their final remaining local pub from closure said they are "highly excited" that it will reopen in time for Christmas.

The Punch Bowl Inn, in Burton in Lonsdale, closed in February 2024 and was put up for sale, with villagers raising more than £275,000 before grants to buy the building.

It took "a labour of love" and 1,400 volunteer hours to get the pub ready to open on Friday, according to Ian Clarke, co-chair of the community benefit society which owns the pub.

"There's a high level of anticipation - one minute it's all dirt and dust and builders, and then the next minute, things actually start to look more like a pub," he said.

"Everyone's really excited - there's a sort of sigh of relief we've got to this point."

The 18th Century coaching inn was once one of eight hostelries in the village.

It was previously registered as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) giving residents a chance to make a bid for it when it was put on the market.

Burton in Lonsdale already had a successful community-owned shop, but Mr Clarke said after the loss of its primary school and other pubs, there wasn't a clear place for people to meet.

"When that last linchpin in the village life did close, it just left a huge gap," he explained.

"You were relying on bumping into people when you're walking the dog.

"People underestimate why you go to a pub and it's only when you've lost it that you realise the importance of it."

The newly-formed society applied for a Community Ownership Fund from the government in April 2024, but the general election stalled the decision.

Exactly a year to the day that the pub is scheduled to open - 19 December - the group discovered they'd been awarded £300,000 as one of the final beneficiaries of the scheme before it closed.

Alongside donations, fundraising and other grants, including the Co-Operatives UK Booster Share Fund, they successfully bought the pub, completing in July this year.

Mr Clarke said it became "one mad rush to get all the work done", which included applying for listed building planning permission and general refurbishment.

"It's been hectic but there was a lot of goodwill in the sense that we didn't know that we're going to have all the funding," he said.

"There was a sort of conviction that we, we felt we were doing the right thing and and luckily it's worked out."

Christine Wardle, community benefit society member, said that the project had benefited from numerous people helping, both as paid contractors and volunteers.

"We saw people at the meetings we didn't expect to see, people bought shares we didn't expect and those who volunteered, it's been a huge cross section," she said.

Ahead of its opening, the group also hired Andrew Sedgwick as a tenant landlord to run The Punch Bowl.

Mr Sedgwick said he admired the "community spirit" that drove the campaign to reopen the hostelry.

"It's that cohesiveness that you need in a community," he explained.

The Punch Bowl management plans to serve food by the new year, and to offer accommodation by Easter 2026.

While the community benefit society is looking forward to the launch, the hard work ahead is not lost on them, Ms Wardle said.

"We've still got the same pressures in terms the economic pressures so we're not complacent about that.

"We may be for the benefit of the community, but if don't make a profit, we still don't exist."

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